The new feed looks a heck of a lot more like Facebook’s News Feed than a digital resume service. Gone are the weird folders a user used to see on logging in, which are now replaced with a stream of information that combines both professional updates (which of your friends have new LinkedIn connections or jobs), and news stories, as well as a top bar that shows “top stories for you,” and other customizable features. Users can like or comment on stories directly from the feed, which again, provides the service with more data on user interests.

Scrolling through this feed, it’s easy to see why adding news stories and content to the LinkedIn site makes it far more engaging for users. After all, people don’t change jobs and update their LinkedIn profiles often enough to populate a timely news feed, but if I checked the LinkedIn app to find an interesting mix of technology and media news, I might be more likely to come back for a visit — not just to accept a connection.

Great piece, highlighting why news is important to LinkedIn . . . how important it is to get people to the site when they aren’t looking for a job or cold calling!

I wonder if they are doing anything to help Groups. You would think that professional groups at LinkedIn would be awesome, because it would be so easy to get the right people into the right groups. But most of the groups feel really dead. Maybe they should buy Lithium . . .

And another thing . . . .given that twitter seems to be getting rid of clients that make it easier to sort wheat from chaff on twitter, and instead going for music/tv/etc, I really hope that LinkedIn succeeds in giving us an organically filtered set of quality industry news!